So, I see this post on slashdot: The Universe Damaged By Observation? Before I even read the article I was reminded of a very bad episode of Star Trek The Next Generation called Force of Nature. It was about how warp travel was wearing out the fabric of spacetime. The episode in the tradition of original Trek’s Let That Be Your Last Preachy Episode created an even more blatant beat-you-over-the-head message. ST TNG had other preachy episodes as well.
I wrote my comment and said I couldn’t find the name of the episode. Several other slashdotters came to the rescue and named the episode Force of Nature and was correctly pointed out it was a lame ass allegory for global warming.
Now here comes the interesting part. Another commenter pointed out the proponent of this idea that our observation of the Universe is shortening it’s lifespan is none other than physicist Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek. How cool is that?
What bothered me most about the article had nothing to do with it’s merits. We’ll let other physicists sort that out. It’s that such an idea would be used to stifle science as in “Things Man Was Not Meant To Know”. There’s enough people out their doing their damnedest to stifle science. Some of them hold very high office.